Birds and Wolves: The Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU) wargame

1942
WATU, a newly created wargaming unit of the British Royal Navy, is tasked with developing and disseminating new tactics that would counter the successful attacks of German U-boats on trans-Atlantic merchant shipping convoys seeking to bring essential supplies to Britain.

Naval escorts were provided by the British and US navies, but still, they could not reduce the effectiveness of the Germans. The Germans had developed new tactics in which they daringly approached convoy ships by passing through the escort barrier and attacking convoy ships before evading the escorts by immediately deep diving after their attack. From receiving 68 million tons of imports, Britain was reduced to surviving on the 26 million that managed to get through. As Britain was not self-sufficient, reserves of food were in danger of running out.

The Royal Navy are aware the Germans were attacking in packs but aren’t able to establish the specifics of their tactics. Commander Gilbert Roberts is assigned to establish and lead WATU at the Western Approaches Command in Liverpool. He recruits most of his staff from the Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRENS).

2023
Travelling by train on my first-ever visit to Liverpool, I began reading Simon Parkin’s book A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Secret Game that Revolutionised the War. I am drawn into the story of Colin Ryder Richardson, an eleven-year-old boy, sent alone to New York by his parents to escape the risk of being killed in the bombing of London. I learn of the U-Boats pursuing the convoy in which Colin’s ship is included. The tactics used by one bold submarine commander in the pursuit changed the German’s tactics from that time on. By the time I arrive in Liverpool, I know the German’s new tactics and have learned of the torpedo attack that killed 21 WRENS heading for service in Gibraltar on the Merchant Ship Aguila because WRENS were not allowed to sail on a naval ship – a policy that changed immediately.
However, I have only reached Part 2 where Commander Robert’s story begins when we reach Liverpool on Friday evening.

The next morning we head off to join members of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) at the Western Approaches Headquarters (WAHQ) Museum housed in the original building of the WAHQ. The museum includes the WRENS Museum and the Arctic Convoys exhibition.

I head through the subterranean rooms of the WRENS Museum to the Operations Centre feeling like I have wound my way back through history. There are the maps, the ladders WRENS climbed to mark and move the positions of Allied ships, record wind and weather and mark reportings of enemy sightings.

I am allocated command of a Flower-class corvette which I name Iris. I meet with the Commander and the other commanders of the escort ships for a convoy of ships heading west (270o). I collect my equipment and take my position.

The day circles through hectic periods of peering at the map to find the location of my ship through red-tinted peepholes, receiving reports of visual contacts and radar contacts, reporting these to the commander and other escorts and engaging with the enemy where appropriate followed by lengthy periods of quiet as the controls managed the movements and engagements on the map.
In quiet periods I would take the chance to visit the exhibitions close by before scurrying back for the next round. At the end of the day, most of the escorts and U-Boats had survived.

All the convoy ships had been destroyed.

I think I had better read part 2 of Simon Parkin’s book.

NOTE:
Steven Spielberg’s film company Dreamworks has bought the movie rights for Birds and Wolves.

For more information

Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) (2021). The Story of the Aguila Wrens.

Kit, B. (2019). Ambling Picks up True-Life Naval Story ‘A Game of Birds and Wolves’ (Exclusive). The Hollywood Reporter, 19 February.

Oldfield, E. (2020). Steven Spielberg set to make film of Devon hero who used board game to beat submarine threat. Devon Live News, 17 January.

Overy, R. (2019). A Game of Birds and Wolves by Simon Parkin review – the ‘secret game that won the war’. The Guardian, Sat 14 Dec.

Parkin, S. (2019). A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Secret Game that Revolutionised the War. Sceptre: London, UK.

Western Approaches Headquarters Home Page.